The Epidemic of Florida Medicare Fraud

Bill Singer
, ContributorI am a critic of the inept and ineffectiveOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

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Moreover, prosecutors charged that the three co-conspirators used Medlink Professional Management Group Inc. ("Medlink"), which they owned and operated, to conceal the fraud and kickbacks scheme from Medicare and law enforcement. After Medicare paid ATC and ASI, Duran, Valera and others transferred the money to Medlink, from which they paid millions in kickbacks pursuant to a money-laundering scheme. The money laundering utilized such steps as creating false medical records in patient charts, concealing kickback payments as “transportation” payments, and creating sham companies with fake employee files to launder money

Two Places at Once

At trial, prosecutors introduced evidence showing that Negron signed patient documents as a supervising therapist without having treated the patients – for example, it appeared that she had signed files purporting to show that she was treating patients at the exact same time in both Boca Raton and Homestead, Florida. Further, prosecutors asserted that Negron knew other treating doctors were similarly robo-signing patient files without reading them or seeing the patients. In one particularly troubling case, prosecutors claimed that Negron charged for group psychotherapy provided to a patient who was in a neuro-vegetative state, who could not lift her head or respond. .

Guilty

Following the guilty verdict, Negron was remanded into custody. Duran and Valera have been in federal custody since their arrests in October 2010 and are scheduled to be sentenced in September 2011. The defendants’ assets were frozen at the time of their arrests through civil forfeiture proceedings.

Defendant Margarita Acevedo pleaded guilty on April 7, 2011, and is also scheduled for sentencing in September 2011.

Negron, Duran and Valera each face the following maximum prison sentences on each count of: